Electronic transactions have become commonplace. Consumers typically engage with the providers of goods and services over the internet in order to make purchases. To accommodate such electronic transactions, various measures have been adopted to verify that the undertaken transaction was authorized by the party to be held accountable for it. Unlike face-to-face transactions, wherein parties to a transaction can simply apply their handwritten signature to a document, electronic transactions are not so easily signed.
Systems exist that provide for the collection of handwritten signatures on electronically delivered documents. As currently practiced a sensor panel, such as a resistive or capacitive type, is provided at the signer's (client) location. A host computer may provide a client computer with a designated window, such as an internet browser web page, for the placement of a recognizable handwritten electronic signature. When the panel is traversed by a stylus in the handwriting transaction, it outputs x-y coordinate data derived from a voltage gradient on the panel corresponding to the handwritten signature scribed thereon. This data is then digitized by an associated controller output to the host computer, which interpolates the digitized coordinate data and places indicia within the window corresponding to the handwritten signature scribed onto the sensor panel. The protocol, sent by the controller, is interpolated by a host computer executing operating-specific software. (e.g., Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac or Linux).
The present method for accomplishing the task of capturing a digitized handwritten signature under the foregoing scenario suffers from a number of shortcomings. First, the user must have access to both the signature capture hardware and the corresponding software installed on the users' client computer or device. Under this system the operating system of the client computer must be known in order to get compatible software to communicate with the digitizer. This is commonly referred to as “installing a driver” to provide connectivity between the hardware device and the client computer.
It should also be noted that if web pages are sent by the host computer to the client computer by way of the internet, and the client computer is running Microsoft Windows as the operating platform and running Microsoft Internet Explorer as the browser, then typically an “Active X” program for down load must be downloaded to the client computer in order for the signature device to properly communicate with the host via the internet. Thus, companies that need to deliver electronic documents to customers for signature face a number of communication issues when trying to communicate with client computers that are typically using a significant number of different computer operating systems.
Dealing with a large number of different operating systems presents the host computer with an equally large number of dynamic variables. Compatible software must be loaded onto the client device to interpret the protocol of the signature capture hardware attached to the system. In addition to the client computers that require customized start-up assistance, it can be expected that there will be significant resources expended in the labor and tedium involved in getting the host computer synchronized with each of the client devices to which it is in communication.
There is a need for a device that would enable a customer or other contracting party to affix their handwritten signature to an electronically delivered document which is simple, secure, interfaces with all major operating systems and which provides a verified electronic signature, in real time, that is virtually indisputable.